Sports rivalries can be so funny! It’s like why would Red Sox fans care if a Yankees fan wanted to start a bar named after a deer named Buck Foston — oh. Clever, right? Or not, but a jury said a club owner had the right to name his bar Buck Foston’s Road House and also gave him $1.5 million.

The New Jersey man had sued the city of New Brunswick, which had opposed granting him a liquor license for his new sports bar, reports the Star-Ledger. He’s a dedicated Yankees fan and wanted to open the place in 2011.

“This has been a long, grueling and expensive process to have my day in court and tell my story, but I remained confident that one day a jury, presented with the same evidence I saw, would agree that my rights were unconstitutionally infringed” the man said after a federal jury handed down the judgment.

He placed a lot of blame on the city’s mayor, who just so happens to be a dedicated Boston Red Sox fan. He claimed the mayor orchestrated the liquor license rejection by the city council, and named him and the council’s president as defendants along with the city.

The mayor said it wasn’t the tongue-in-cheek slam against the Sox that the city council opposed, it was that the location was at heavily traveled intersection in the city.

Upon hearing the verdict the mayor said he was disappointed, but “while it would have been better to win, the verdict was not for the amount [the man] was seeking” and the sports bar never opened. He said the man had wanted $7 million to $10 million in damages.

“Motorists and the surrounding neighborhood who travel the roadway will not be burdened with a night club and sports bar drinking establishment that doubles the occupancy of the former restaurant on the site located on a dangerous off-ramp connecting two major highways in New Brunswick,” the mayor said.

Meanwhile, the man behind Buck Foston’s has moved to Florida, but says he’s going to try to open a sports bar with that name concept somewhere else. Ostensibly because it’s just so original.

Club owner wins fight, $1.5 million verdict against New Brunswick in naming of sports bar [Star-Ledger]

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